How ye gettin' on?

This weekend was spent in Donegal with Cara and the lads, and was possibly my favorite weekend in Ireland. Friday afternoon Isabelle, Brenna, Alex, Odhran D. and myself took the bus which passed through some gloriously picturesque fields and hills, sprinkled with many adorable sheep, cows and horses (whom I will dearly miss when I'm back in America. I dread driving along a highway that doesn't involve passing by old ivy covered ruins and farm animals, but instead mini malls and parking lots LIVIN' ROOMS BEDROOMS DINETTES HAY HAY. Anyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk ...I digress.) When we got to Donegal Town we met up with Cara, who just arrived herself from Dublin, and we went to a cafe, drank cups of joe and made a plan for the night which involved taking a party bus to Killybegs for their friend's birthday party (but more on that later. And by party bus I guess I mean a kind of taxi bus but party bus offers a more accurate description). Odhran D. and Alex walked to his house, as they were staying there for the weekend, and Cara's mom picked us gals up and drove us to their house. About a 5 minute drive from town, we barreled through what looks like a one way windy street decorated by a canopy of trees to their house which over looks Donegal bay and flowery hilltops. Most of the lads live next door to her so we "dandered" (which means a "wee walk" according to Odhran D.) over to Odhran N.'s house and jumped on his INGROUND trampoline overlooking the bay and played with his cat (jealous?) . There are donkey's in the front yard and her family pretty much shares a dog that actually belongs to Brian's family who lives next door to them but is love with her mom so the sweet lil dawg instead splits her time between both homes.

Friday night everyone came over and we hung out in the shed behind her house blasting tunes and waited for the party bus which certainly delivered. Good times that is. To give an idea of how much fun the party was, I found out the next day that there were about 3 rooms and free food I had no idea about since I literally only left the dance floor a handful of times only to use the ladies room. We then took the party bus back to Cara's and hungout until the wee hours of the morning. The next day we hung around, laughed about the night before and listened to what the boys did after they left Cara's (holy water might have been involved) walked around town a little, watched Doritos Ads (which, you're right dear reader, doesn't sound like a typical pastime. But you see, Cara and some of the lads entered an ad contest and we were taking a looksie at their competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iLF5qpBQMQ&feature=related ...watch it and weep suckers). We then went to the town over for an outdoor concert which featured bands and singers from the area, but the grand finale was this Harry Potter Hagrid looking character whose guitar skills are greater than or equal to my map skills (see below). We then got shuttled back into Donegal town and went to the Abbey Hotel bar and then to the dance club Sky. Which in a word, ruled. We finished off the night with some Shamrock Chinese Food, yes thats right, Shamrock. Chinese Food. If that doesn't bring the lolz I'm not sure what does. Then more late night convos at Cara's ensued until the wee hours of Sunday. We woke up for a second to wisely decide not to take the 9:45 am bus back to Galway but instead the 4:15 pm, and then ate a gracious and delicious and massive brunch prepared by Cara's little sisters.

We were seriously sad to leave as Donegal is one of the most beautiful/ fun places I've ever been and Cara's parents, sisters and brother could not have been more generous, hospitable, or sweet. This weekend has made me even SADDER to leave Ireland, and I'm already planning on moving here next summer. I could gush about the weekend and Ireland in general forever but I have things to do and by things to do I mean take a walk to what we coined the "fairy forest" which is a castle and accompanying magical forest land about 40 minutes from my house which we found last week and never want to leave.